Talking with the Las Vegan behind Ghost Adventures

In 2006, Las Vegas filmmakers Zak Bagans and Nick Groff made the documentary Ghost Adventures, which went from a couple of film festivals to numerous airings on Sci Fi. On the strength of that film, Bagans, Groff and their cameraman Aaron Goodwin struck a deal with the Travel Channel for a regular series, which premieres this Friday, October 17, at 10 p.m., following an encore of their original documentary, and then airs subsequent Fridays at 9 p.m. The loquacious Bagans expounded on all things ghost-related while putting the finishing touches on the season at his Vegas production office.

On his own first supernatural encounter: “I never believed in ghosts. I thought it was a bunch of bullshit, until I had an experience that opened my eyes and woke me the F up. It was something that I couldn’t ignore, because it was just so real. I moved into this apartment building, and about a month after I moved in I started hearing a lady screaming my full name: ‘Zachary, Zachary, Zachary.’ It happened seven nights straight, and it happened at the same time every night, three o’clock in the morning. The seventh night, she did it again, and this time I was sleeping on my stomach. It woke me up again, and it was like someone was on my back pinning me down.”

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On the places he chooses to investigate: “The places that we’re choosing are not, you know, this is haunted by the little boy who blows bubblegum in the window. We go to places where people are being injured.”

On the danger of toying with spirits: “Some of these spirits that are intelligent can harm you. And I have been harmed, and I’ve been dealing with a great deal of episodes that have been following me home. It hasn’t just happened to me; it’s happened to two of my last girlfriends that have been over at my house within the last three months, to where they won’t even come back over there anymore it’s been so extreme.”

On competing ghost-investigation shows Most Haunted and Ghost Hunters: “We are not fans of [Most Haunted] at all. We have nothing to do with that show. I have nothing good to say about that show. We have absolutely no affiliation with them at all. … Ghost Hunters, they like to go out and disprove everything, and just wave a bunch of equipment around for a couple hours. I know people who have said they’ve investigated their church, and they were there for an hour. We don’t do that.”

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Josh Bell

Josh Bell is the film editor for Las Vegas Weekly, where he's been writing movie and TV reviews since 2002. ...